Every digital device you use operates on a string of ones and zeroes, the binary "yes/no" decision at the foundation of modern computing. It's a concept so fundamental to our modern day that we rarely stop to wonder where it came from. But it's all the work of one man: Claude Shannon, whose fascinating story you've likely never heard.

Shannon's work earned him little fame, but the first principles he theorized make every digital thing we do today possible. As we type, tap, pinch, zoom, dictate, download, message and chat our way through every day, it's hard to imagine what life would be like without his innovations.